The present invention relates, in general, to a shock absorber and, more particularly, to a shock absorber capable of effectively absorbing impact or kinetic energy using the rupture stress of a wire while changing the transmitting direction of impact force from a horizontal direction into a vertical direction and securing an effective displacement suitable for reducing the impact of inertia when being impacted.
As well known to those skilled in the art, shock absorbers have been effectively used in a variety of industrial fields. That is, such shock absorbers are effectively used as a cushioning device for automobiles, trains, piers, emergency landing strips of airports, elevator pits, large-scaled and specially equipped trucks or construction vehicles. Such shock absorbers are also used as a cushioning device in safety facilities for traffic applications such as median strips, guard rails, and protection walls of terminuses of streets or railroads. Other applications of the above shock absorbers are in protection mats for persons falling from low-story buildings that are on fire, military bunkers, or buffers for reducing or eliminating external impact energy in various industrial fields.
In the prior art, waste tires or plastic structures have been typically used as shock absorbers. Such tires and plastic structures, used as shock absorbers, are crushed in an impacting direction when being impacted, thus effectively absorbing the impact or kinetic energy and retarding the time of transmission of impact energy.
On the other hand, the chassis for automobiles has been designed to be crushed, thus absorbing the impact of inertia and protecting passengers from such impact when it is impacted.
Examples of typical shock absorbers are air bags, gas shock absorbers, springs, high viscosity materials or styrofoam.
Typical air bags are known as ideal shock absorbers since they individually and uniformly distribute impact energy on the external surface of a spherical air body. However, such air bags are problematic in that they are expensive and are difficult to install. The typical gas shock absorbers are designed in that when the gas shock absorbers are impacted, they are compressed while increasing the gas pressure in their cylinders and absorbing impact or kinetic energy. However, such gas shock absorbers are problematic in that the impacting energy direction is maintained without being changed. Typical springs are designed for absorbing impact or kinetic energy due to their resiliency when being impacted. However, the springs also cause a reaction and this sometimes causes secondary problems due to reaction force resulting in bouncing.
Other typical shock absorbers are not designed for changing or dividing the direction of impact energy, thus failing to effectively absorb such an impact or kinetic energy. Another problem experienced in the typical shock absorbers resides in that they are not designed to secure effective displacement, thus regrettably resulting in severe damage of impacting and impacted materials. When such shock absorbers, failing to secure an effective displacement, are used with automobiles, the shock absorbers cannot effectively protect passengers, but result in severe injury of them when the automobiles are impacted.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a shock absorber, which effectively absorbs impact or kinetic energy while eliminating the problems caused by reaction force, changing the transmitting direction of impact force from a horizontal direction into a vertical direction, and securing an effective displacement suitable for reducing the impact of inertia when being impacted, and which is also produced at low cost and is easily installed.
In order to accomplish the above object, a shock absorber according to the primary embodiment of this invention comprises: a unit cross member including: two longitudinal arms crossing each other and hinged to each other at a cross, thus being selectively closed by impact; and at least one wire vertically connected to the two crossing arms; and two guide panels vertically positioned on opposite sides of the cross member, wherein the guide panels individually have a vertical guide groove on their inside surfaces, thus movably receiving associated ends of the arms. When an impact or kinetic energy is applied to either guide panel of this embodiment, the unit cross member along with the wire effectively absorbs the kinetic energy while securing an effective displacement suitable for reducing the impact of inertia.
In another embodiment, the shock absorber comprises: a plurality of unit cross members coupled to each other at their ends in X, Y and Z-axes, thus forming a multi-scissor assembly, each of the cross members including: two longitudinal arms crossing each other and hinged to each other at a cross, thus being selectively closed by impact; and at least one wire vertically connected to the two crossing arms; and two guide panels vertically positioned on opposite sides of the multi-scissor assembly, the guide panels individually having a plurality of vertical guide grooves on their inside surfaces, thus movably receiving associated ends of the multi-scissor assembly. When an impact or kinetic energy is applied to either guide panel of this embodiment, the unit cross member along with the wire effectively absorbs the kinetic energy while changing the transmitting direction of impact force from a horizontal direction into a vertical direction by the wire and securing an effective displacement, suitable for reducing the impact of inertia, until the wire is ruptured.
In a further embodiment, the shock absorber comprises: a horizontal rail member; an arm vertically passing across and hinged to the rail member, with top and bottom sections of the arm respectively extending upwardly and downwardly; and a plurality of wires connected to both the rail member and the top section of the arm. When an impact or kinetic energy is applied to the arm, the arm along with the wires effectively absorbs the kinetic energy.
In a brief description, when the shock absorber of this invention is impacted, it changes the transmitting direction of the impact force from a horizontal direction into a vertical direction. Due to the impact force acting in the vertical direction, the wires are expanded and finally ruptured, thus securing an effective displacement between the impact application point to the impact transmission point. The shock absorber also minimizes the reaction force acting on the impacting material, thus reducing the damage of the impacting and impacted materials. The shock absorber thus effectively protects passengers when it is used with an automobile.